1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless devices equipped to receive textual messages, and particularly to a method and system for interactively filtering textual messages which are broadcast to wireless devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communication devices, which are becoming ubiquitous, typically take such forms as mobile telephones, palmtop personal data assistants (PDAs), portable computers equipped with wireless modems, etc. Such devices may connect to the public wireless network and thus are able to contact telephone devices globally. Such devices may also be equipped with short-range RF communication capability, such as a capability conforming to the Bluetooth specification, and may then communicate with other such devices that are nearby, typically within a range of about 10 meters.
A typical wireless device includes a processor, a random-access memory (RAM), a display screen, a keyboard or at least a keypad, and signaling means for alerting the user. The keyboard or keypad may be integrated with the display, such as in a “touch screen” display.
Advertisers have seized the opportunity to send unsolicited advertising messages to such devices. This has come to be known as “pushing” of message content, as opposed to sending content a user has requested, or “pulled”. An excessive volume of pushed content can become an annoyance to a user, perhaps the most egregious example being the occurrence of “spam” on the Internet. A user with a Bluetooth-capable mobile terminal walking through a shopping mall, for example, may be deluged with a stream of advertising messages from business establishments in the shopping mall. Although the user has the option of switching off the mobile terminal and thus ignoring all the pushed messages, some of them may of genuine interest to him or her.
International PCT Patent Application WO 99/35778, filed by MICROSOFT Corporation and published Jul. 15, 1999 represents a step toward filtering pushed messages. A user of a wireless device enters filter data, which is stored in the device. An incoming message may contain filter bytes in its header, which are compared with the stored filter data. If no match is detected, the message is not accepted into the wireless device. This has the drawback that if a user has allowed filter data that is no longer relevant to remain stored in the wireless device, the user is unaware of incoming messages that do not match the filter data, even though such messages might be of current interest.
Therefore there is a need for an interactive filtering system which alerts the user to incoming broadcast messages that are of particular interest to the user while not precluding the user from receiving any incoming messages that may have some significance (i.e., less than particular interest) to him or her.